Rapier; Germany, c. 1610

Picked up for (almost) a song at the Maryland Arms & Armor Collectors Associations annual shindig in the Timonium Cow Palace, the corroded, deeply pitted blade yielded the name of this substantial weapon’s maker: Willm Tesche Wirsberg.

That, and the strange pommel shape, allowed me to date the weapon to around 1610. The foible of the blade had broken off a few hundred years ago, and the weapon had been given a functional point soon after… rather than getting a new blade. the leather wrap of the handle remains original.